Sgl no 2 account on direct debit???

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  • Got stung by them too - this as well as the breakdown cover! Found out it was them through this post so thanks! Barclays fab service means it was just a 2min call and they will take care of it, refund my money and ban swinton from taking any money in the next 12 months.
  • I had an instance where £17.99 was withdrawn from my account. I called my bank, who provided me details of who it related to - Swinton Insurance. I called the number they provided, which was 0845 1683676. When I called it, I explained that I had an amount debited which I was not aware of, they asked for how much, and they knew what it related to before I gave them my personal details, and explained it related to personal accident insurance, and gave me another number -
    0800 4661 582. I am currently on hold trying to get through to no avail. The advice from my bank was that I should get the name of the person I was speaking to, call the bank back, and inform them that I have not received the goods or services that the direct debit relates to, provide the name of the person I have spoken to, and they will refund me the money, and claim (through raising an indemnity to Swinton), the money back from Swinton, as this is part of the direct debit guarantee.
  • DLongden - I expect you are still holding on! The phone service with this company is TERRIBLE. I used hands free and have been waiting for someone to answer the phone for about 6 HOURS trying to cancel the free 3 month policy. I'm sure they will contact me when they discover the DD has been cancelled.:mad:
  • Well I actually work for Swinton and this Personal Accident policy is the absolute bane of working for them.

    We are viciously targeted for selling 3 months free Personal Accident, Breakdown and Home Emergency all advisors are targeted for a minimum of 3 a day.

    Now without wanting to make excuses but when staff are continually threatened with disciplinary for not selling enough volume, they will do all they can to keep their jobs. The products are fully scripted but come across more as a 'free' entitlement and we do state what payments will be after the free period.

    However if this is done for example, with a car or home insurance policy it's probably on around page 12 of our scripts and by then customers have normally stopped listening (This is a FSA issue rather than Swinton) there are too many scripts to read and customers switch off.

    But yeah believe the idea is that we sell enough, they are aware a large volume would cancel, but hoping a decent percentage won't and these policies will run and run unless stopped by the policyholder.

    To be frank I'd love someone to make a big issue with this as it causes us alot of work dealing with the complaints, pressure from having to sell so many it's unreal and also it is starting to sully our once great reputation, we are morphing from a local broker who provided insurance products and advice that fitted the client to a monstrous sell everything/anything at all costs ogre.

    The department who deals with cancelling these policies has 66 staff, so Swinton employ this many people just to process these, so again gives you some idea of the volumes we are having to sell.

    I know it doesn't excuse any of the above, but believe me the staff hate it as much as the public seem to.
  • I have had my car insurance with swinton for years. I recently looked at my direct debits online and noticed £3.94 coming out. I rang my bank this morning and they told me it was Swinton and had been coming out since 2006! I should have noticed but with it being such a small amount i've missed it.

    I rang my local branch this morning and it took him ages to find what it was but eventually told me it was personal accident insurance.

    I moved in 2007 and swinton know this as my car is insuranced with them at my new address but i have had nothing regarding this personal accident insurance, which if i had this policy with them surely they would have to ask me each year whether i want to continue with it?

    What makes me laugh even more they actually tried to sell me another in August (that was free for 3 months) i said yes and then cancelled it just before the 3 months and no money was ever taken for that. So they actually tried to sell me a policy that they were already charging me for.

    Do I have any chance of getting the money back that they have been taking since 2006 which in total amounts up to about £240.00!
  • Thanks for this guys. I was wondering what it was. When I took my insurance out with swinton they said I would get a cheque back after the first three months. Has anybody had problems with this as it is due soon.
  • So glad I found this thread. I have never even had a policy with Swinton until this. I did get a quote for car insurance though. I'm pretty sure I never signed anything or sent anything back giving them permission to set up a Direct Debit.

    I look forward to being put on hold for hours later whilst I try and get my money back! :mad:
  • col111
    col111 Posts: 2 Newbie
    I was also deceived by Swinton, I recently renewed my car insurance with them and paid in full up front by card and was then told that I automatically had 3 months personal accident cover which I was not previously offered or asked for (is that legal?). If I did not want to continue after 3 months I had to contact them to cancel. I said I didn't want the bother of having to remember to cancel it and was told that I had to call another number to cancel it. It seems a very dodgy way of doing business as I reckon some people will just forget about it even if they never wanted it in the first place. A couple of years ago Swinton was hit with a big fine for mis-selling PPi and now they seem to be mis-selling personal accident insurance and I am surprised the Office of Fair Trading hasn't taken any action yet.
    I had to take time off work and spend 20 minutes on a call centre waiting list to get through to the dept which deals with cancellations and they still persisted in trying to sell me the personal accident cover which I never wanted in the first place, but only after my insisting did they cancel it. It was like dealing with a dishonest car salesman. Very annoying and I will not renew with them in the future!
  • col111
    col111 Posts: 2 Newbie
    I was also deceived by Swinton when I recently renewed my car insurance. After paying up front by card I was then immediately informed that I also had 3 months free personal accident cover which I had not requested or been previously offered and that if I did not want to continue the (unwanted) cover, it was up to me to contact them to do so otherwise they would start debiting my bank account after 3 months (is that legal?). I said straight away that I didn't want the bother of having to remember to cancel it later, maybe they hope some people will forget about it and they can start collecting the direct debits, but I was told that I had to contact a different Swinton number to cancel it. So I had to take time off work and after waiting about 20 minutes on a call centre waiting list finally got through to the cancellation dept where they still persisted in trying to sell me the unwanted cover, until I insisted it was cancelled. Swinton was fined a couple of years ago for mis-selling PPI and now they seem to be doing they same with personal accident cover, I am surprised the Office of Fair Trading has not done anything. Very annoying and I will not be renewing my car insurance with them again, it was like dealing with a dishonest used car salesman.
  • cheznal
    cheznal Posts: 5,161
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    Just come across this thread and I have the same hassle. I was offered 'emergency home insurance' and 'personal accident insurance' free for 3 months when I took out my house insurance with swinton. I tried to use the home emergency when my boiler broke down 2 weeks ago and was told I had to wait until the monday to send someone out so they could 'confirm' that I had home emergncy cover with Swinton. I told them to stick it (Boiler broke down on the Friday afternoon, and this was the Saturday afternoon, no hot water although I had heating, and I have a 2 year old in the house, but they didn't care). They told me I wasn't covered until they confirmed it with Swinton, then sneakily took the £6.99 out of my acc on the Tuesday.....hmmm. Promptly cancelled that and got the bank to recall the direct debit. Luckily the branch I deal with isn't far from where I live, so they want to be careful lol x
    Smoke-free since 7/12/2011 :0)
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